The world has become so vast and tangled that it’s nearly impossible to tackle anything solo anymore. This wasn’t anyone’s intention, but society was already like this when I was born.
Since the dawn of hierarchical societies, most people have dutifully played the role of tools to achieve the organization’s goals. Yet, as these organizations grew larger, the gap between individual roles and organizational objectives widened. The more this connection faded, the more people felt relieved. It was like escaping the weight of responsibility. Just like a tiny cog in a colossal machine, as long as it spins diligently, it doesn’t matter whether the machine’s crafting cars, weapons, or drones targeting humans.
A few years back, when Google decided to join ‘Project Maven’ (a Pentagon project enhancing drone target recognition using machine learning) and erased ‘Don’t be evil’ from their code of conduct, I couldn’t help but wonder, is everything humanity does truly necessary for humanity’s sake? Some developers at Google even resigned and submitted petitions to Sundar Pichai (Google’s CEO), but most employees, unaware of their contributions to such endeavors, continued their cog-like work. People were thrilled by AlphaGo defeating Lee Sedol, yet the same deep learning technology could be used to perfectly distinguish between streets and human faces in a city, wasting not a single bullet. Of course, it could also accurately identify cancer cells from regular ones, but once something is created, there’s no turning back. We must live with it. And imagining harmful uses of technology doesn’t require a madman. Even Einstein, who can’t easily be labeled as bad, wrote the letter proposing the Manhattan Project due to the terror of the Nazis. Ultimately, the problem lies in society’s vastness and complexity, making any attempt seem positively wrapped.
Back in the Joseon Dynasty, people didn’t live as long as today, but at least there was no human-induced threat of global annihilation. If I were born then, I wouldn’t have spent my days in chaos, unable to decipher truth from lies like we do now.
Now we are all sons of bitches!
Kenneth Bainbridge made this remark after the first nuclear test (Trinity) of the Manhattan Project, and I thought, ‘Was there a hint of arrogance in that sentiment?’ Such reflections made the experimenters seem genuinely culpable. Diane Greene, Google Cloud’s CEO, might find herself in similar discussions, yet blowing up TensorFlow servers isn’t feasible. The world is far too complex now, and one could easily list hundreds of reasons why TensorFlow needs to exist.
Sadly, it seems we might have to rely on ‘John Connor’ or ‘The Avengers’ to save us now.
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